The 840-foot amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard recently left dry dock at NASSCO and is now undergoing further modifications at Pier 13, Naval Station San Diego.
/ Union-Tribune

Veteran Hollywood filmmaker Peter Berg intends to use the San Diego-based amphibious assault Bonhomme Richard to shoot scenes in his upcoming sci-fi epic, "Battleship." Joe Kane, a chief aboard BHR, says a film production crew is scheduled to begin moving equipment on to the amphib on Friday, May 13. Precise shooting dates haven't been released. But it is unclear what will be shot on BHE. But Chief Kane said the filmmakers apparently will use the ship's bridge.

The movie stars Liam Neeson and Alexander Skarsgård, but we don't know much more than that. The Internet Movie Database says the plot, "A fleet of ships is forced to do battle with an armada of unknown origins in order to discover and thwart their destructive goals."

On the battleship.movie website, Berg says, "There's a group of life forms from some other planet have come to our planet for something. They've got a very specific agenda. That agenda is not global domination. It's an agenda and that agenda puts them into conflict with members of our military. Their technology is relatable. It's not incredibly far out and unbeatable. It's comprehensible. Hopefully it'll make for good fun and an intense ride."

This won't be he first time that a real Navy ship was actually involved in a movie, or made part of the story. You may remember the 1980 movie, "The Final Countdown." The plotline, as IMBD reminds us: "The USS Nimitz, a modern-day nuclear aircraft carrier, is drawn through a time warp from 1980 to a couple days before the Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor, and the crew must decide whether to launch a preemptive strike against the incoming Japanese carrier fleet with their more advanced air wing, or allow history to take its course, which might not happen since they had rescued Senator Chapman, who disappeared shortly before the attack, from his death"